Mine
by Rebel-Angel-Hero
Summary: For her eighteenth birthday, Rapunzel wanted to go to the Light Festival more than anything. Unfortunately, her mother won't let her go. But when she meets the charming yet infuriating "Flynn" Fitzherbert, she just might get her chance to go.
1. Chapter 1

**So...this is another one of my crack story ideas. I got it after watching a Tangled fan video to the song "Mine" by Taylor Swift. It was actually really well done, even if (like me) you're not really Taylor Swift fan. But anyways...I estimate this story will be about five chapters. It was originally intended to be a one-shot, but it's already past ten thousand words, which I considered too long to be a one-shot. So it's ended up a multi-shot. Anywhozzles...enjoy. Please review. I love reviews.**

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* * *

**The line at the coffee shop was especially long that morning, something that irked to no end the petite blonde about halfway up the line. If things didn't hurry up soon, she wasn't going to make it to school on time– luckily she didn't have to go to school at the normal 7:45 start time today. However, had she anticipated the line being this bad, she might not have gotten up so late.

Rapunzel blew a stray bang out of her face, annoyed. The little old lady at the front of the line couldn't seem to make up her mind; even the barista seemed to be getting impatient. Finally the woman seemed to decide, and the line moved forward with an audible sigh of relief from everyone. Rapunzel toyed with her outrageously long blonde hair, wondering– as her friends often did– why she kept it as long as it was. Even woven into a thick braid, it still hit just above her knees, and when it was unbound, it almost touched the floor. But she'd never been able to bring herself to cut it more than just trimming the split ends– the golden locks, interspersed with chocolate brown, were just too beautiful.

A paper slipped out of her bulging school bag and fluttered to the floor. She leaned over and down a little to pick it up. Unfortunately, that placed her right in the path of a customer rushing out of the shop in a considerable hurry. As soon as Rapunzel was upright again, she was almost knocked back to the ground by a tall man racing for the door; though she managed to stay on her feet, his cup of coffee cracked open and splashed all over her shirt.

She looked down in dismay at her soaked and probably stained shirt. Fortunately, none of the coffee had gotten onto the things in her bag. People around her backed away a little as she attempted to wring out her shirt.

"Oh, God, I'm so sorry," the offender apologized.

"No, it's fine," she said, still vainly trying to rid her clothes of the coffee. "It didn't get on my stuff, or anything…"

He glanced at the clock hanging on the wall, then pulled a pen and slip of paper from his jacket pocket, scribbled something on the paper, then handed it and his jacket to Rapunzel.

"Here, take this," he offered. "I'll pay to have your clothes cleaned." With that, he ran out of the coffee shop.

Rapunzel stared after him, then looked down at the paper. On it was written a phone number, and below that, "ask for Flynn." Deciding that there wasn't much more that she could do, she shrugged on the jacket– still a little warm, she noted– and moved up a place in line.

* * *

Rapunzel dropped her head in her hand as she drummed her fingers on the table at which she was sitting. Alison was supposed to meet her here twenty minutes ago, but so far she'd had no word from the girl. Then again, that was pretty typical– the slightly ditzy redhead had a tendency to forget to tell people when her plans changed.

She sat at the pair's favorite diner, the Snuggly Duckling. She wasn't sure how the name had gotten started– she was pretty sure it had been a joke years before– but it had stuck, and the diner had been called that ever since. She wasn't even really sure of its original name. Regardless, the food was good, and it was a fun, if somewhat loud, place.

While she waited for her friend, her mind kept drifting back to her mishap in the coffee shop earlier in the week. Luckily she'd been able to get all of the stain out– a good thing, considering it was one of her favorite shirts– but she still had to return the man's jacket. While she had the phone number, she'd been a little nervous about calling it, though she couldn't explain why. So she'd been carrying the jacket in her bag for the last few days, although she hadn't yet gotten a chance to run by the coffee shop and find him.

"Can I get anything for you?" an approaching waiter asked.

Rapunzel sighed. "Yeah, I was waiting for a friend, but I don't think she's coming." She looked up at the waiter and recognized him with a shock.

"You're the guy!" she exclaimed. He raised an eyebrow. "I am?"

"The guy from the coffee shop the other day," she explained. "Remember, you spilled your coffee on me?"

He immediately looked mortified. "I'm really sorry about that, I was late for class. I didn't ruin your shirt, did I?"

"Oh, no, it was a quick fix, I cleaned it when I got home," she assured him, waving a hand. Remembering his jacket, she reached into her bag, pulled it out, and handed it to him. "Here, I kept meaning to give this back to you. Thanks."

"It was the least I could do," he said, taking back the jacket. "So, did you want to order?"

A grumble from her stomach was all the answer that was needed. She smiled sheepishly. "Um, yes."

* * *

After seeing her two more times in one week, Flynn asked his coworker, Addie, if the blonde-haired girl at Table 6 came often.

"Her?" Addie asked, glancing over. "Oh, yeah, she's here most afternoons on the weekdays. She comes every Saturday morning too. Nice girl. Long hair."

Flynn couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed her before now. Granted, with the exception of the time when she returned his jacket, she'd always been with one girl or another, but still. To be honest, he still felt a little guilty about bumping into her at the coffee shop the previous week, but since there didn't seem to be any damage done, he didn't worry about it too much.

The next Saturday he finally got tired of waiting for her table to be in his round, and asked Addie to switch him tables. At first she looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a look that said "No" about as many ways as you could say it, but then she spotted the girl. "_Ah_," she said knowingly with a wicked grin. "_Sure_, Flynn, I'd be happy too. But you'll owe me." He didn't like how she said that, but he was pretty sure that Addie couldn't come up with anything _too_ bad. Then again, this was Addie. She had a very vivid imagination and less moral qualms than was normal about the legality of an act. But, he mused, it was worth it. He didn't know why, but this girl intrigued him.

Today she was by herself again. Her very, _very_ long hair was pulled back into a ponytail, though that didn't seem to doing much to keep it out of her face or what she was working on. She was bent over a thick notebook, her pencil moving across the page gracefully. She seemed to be concentrating entirely on her work– she was so engrossed, in fact, that she didn't notice when he walked up to her table.

He cleared his throat. "So, can I get you anything?" he asked.

She jumped a little and looked up hurriedly. "Oh, yes, sorry, I was a little spaced out there," she said, flipping her notebook closed with the pencil marking the page. It was only when she looked back up at him that she seemed to notice who he was. "It's you again!"

"Uh, yes. I do work here."

"I gathered," she said dryly. "I'll just have strawberry pancakes and apple juice."

He wrote down her order, but when he tried to continue the conversation further, the words somehow wouldn't come. Instead, he just walked back to the kitchen, mentally kicking himself as he ran his fingers through his floppy brown hair. He'd never had this much trouble with a girl before– in fact, he'd never really had _any_ trouble with a girl before– so why was she so different? He didn't even know her name, for goodness' sake.

He decided to start with that when he brought out her pancakes. She was back to drawing again, but she noticed when he came over, and quickly set her notebook to the side to make room for her plate.

"So you know my name," he began, and internally cringed at how lame he sounded, "but I don't even know yours."

She looked confused. "I don't– oh, the card, right," she said. The fact that she hadn't remembered his name– or that he'd even given it to her– dealt a slight bruise to his ego, but, then again, Teresa, one of his two roommates, always said that his ego was too swelled anyways, so there you go. He tried to look nonchalant, though his level of success was probably debatable.

"So…"

"Oh, right. My name's Rapunzel."

It was an odd name, but then again, Flynn wasn't all that common either. "So you're an artist, I gather?"

"Uh, yeah, I've been drawing for years, but I paint a lot more these days. And no offense, but I'm really hungry." She gave him a somewhat apologetic smile.

"Oh, yeah, right, sorry." He nodded with a slightly tight smile and went back to the kitchen. Once he was safely out of her field of vision, he frowned and sat down on a stool with a thump, his head propped up on one hand.

"Uh oh," Addie teased as she entered the kitchen as well. "I've seen that look. Does a particular lady at Table 6 have the Great Flynn in a funk?"

"Ha, ha," he said sarcastically. "Way to kick a guy when he's down."

"Oh, you know me," she said mock-sweetly. "Queen of sensitivity." She gave Flynn a pat on the shoulder and gathered her order before exiting the kitchen again, still smirking. He sneered at her, but once she had left, he returned to his former, pensive position.

* * *

Rapunzel walked into the Snuggly Duckling on Saturday morning as usual. The hostess, a petite woman named Miranda, smiled upon seeing her. "Good morning, dear," she greeted the girl. "Your usual table?"

"If it's not taken," Rapunzel added.

"It'll always be open for you, dear," Miranda told her. "You're one of our best customers."

Rapunzel smiled warmly, thanked Miranda, and sat down, opening her sketchbook. She was working on a project for her Drawing & Painting class at school, and for once she liked the assignment.

A familiar figure came up to her table, and she looked up and smiled. "Hi, Flynn," she said.

"Hey," he replied, smiling as well. "So what'll it be?"

"Oh, I think I'll go with French toast today. And chocolate milk."

"Sounds good." He wrote down her order and went back to the kitchen; she, in turn, went back to her work.

When Flynn brought back her food, Rapunzel was, once again, so absorbed in her work that she didn't notice him at first, and looked up in unconscious surprise as her plate clinked against the table as he set it down.

"You seem really into your work," he commented. "What are you drawing?"

"Oh, it's for school," she said. "We have to draw something relating to motion." She pushed her sketchbook over to give him a look.

He tilted his head a little to look at it in the proper angle. It was of a dancer leaping through the air. He was impressed at the intricate detail that she'd devoted to it.

"It's really good," he told her. She blushed a little. "You really think so?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said, and the smile he gave her was real. He'd learned a while ago that the moves he normally used when trying to catch a girl had absolutely no effect on Rapunzel– in fact, they often worked opposite of his intention, and turned her off. So when it came to Rapunzel, he ditched his usual pick-up lines (which, as almost all pick-up lines are, were terrible) and his patented "smolder" and went for sincere instead. However, he was beginning to get a little impatient. He didn't normally wait this long to ask a girl out, and he had decided to not wait any longer.

"Hey, Rapunzel?" he asked. She looked up from pouring syrup on her French toast.

"Yes?"

"Are…are you doing anything later this week?"

The smile that she gave him dismayed him, because it was one he'd seen a few– _only_ a few– times before. It was the kind of smile a girl gave a guy when she was turning him down.

"Flynn, you're a nice guy, and I like talking with you, but I just don't feel like I know you well enough," she said somewhat apologetically. He was about to say something, but she kept going. "And even if I did, I'm just not looking for a relationship right now. Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather we just kept things the way they are between us."

He tried hard to keep the disappointment from his face, though his level of success was probably doubtful. There was a silver lining, though, however thin it might be: at least it wasn't just him.

* * *

**And...there's the first part done. I'm already up to Part Four, but I didn't post until now because I was debating with myself on whether to split it up or keep it as one chapter. Then I hit ten thousands words and realized that I was going to _have_ to split it up. So there you go.**

**I'm actually really enjoying this story. And one I get past my writer's block, I'll enjoy it even more. Because right now it's kind of taunting me. Grr. D:**

**Again, reviews are love. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review. And if you feel like it, read some of my other stuff too. I promise to keep the shameless advertising at a minimum.**

**Cheers,**

**~RAH**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm just now realizing how terrible the description is for this story. Seriously. I used the word "go" _way_ too many times. But you can only do so much in 255 characters, I guess... *sigh***

**Just so you guys know, I am so unbelievably touched by the strong positive reaction to this story. On most of my stuff, I get maybe two reviews a chapter. (Though I take all the reviews I can get.) Day after this story is posted, I log onto my email and I've got five reviews. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It really does make my day to hear your glowing praise. ...Oh, fine, and the criticism too. I know quite well I'm not perfect.**

**Anywho, onto the story, which is what you really came here for, not my rambling author's notes. Read on!**

* * *

Rapunzel sighed as she opened the door to the small house she shared with her mother. It had been a long day. After having breakfast, Rapunzel had met up with Alison and Cynthia for what the latter called a "hard-core shopping trip," meaning that Rapunzel was dragged into almost every apartment store in the mall while Cynthia and Alison played dress-up. Luckily the girls had been wise enough to allow Rapunzel to go to the one art store in the mall, or there might have been blood spilt. But despite the hectic nature of the past ten hours, Rapunzel's thoughts kept returning to the annoyingly good-looking waiter at the Snuggly Duckling.

She really did feel bad about turning Flynn down. She did like him, but she was not about to get involved with a boy, not after the debacle with Jordan, and _definitely_ not after what Matthew had done. She knew better now, though it had taken a lot of tissues and a lot of afternoons spent crying at Alison's house to heal from those wounds. Besides, her own father was proof that some stupid guys would leave behind a wife and child without even a by-your-leave.

As soon as she was in the house, she slipped off her shoes. She didn't know why, but ever since she was little, she had had an irrational dislike for any kind of shoes. It was all her mother could do to make her wear shoes outside of the house– if Rapunzel had her way, she'd go everywhere barefoot.

She walked to the kitchen to see if there was anything to eat. Today was Saturday, meaning that tonight was her mother's "girls' night out" with her friends. It also meant that Rapunzel was therefore left to her own devices as to how to feed and entertain herself. Entertaining herself wasn't hard– if there wasn't a good movie on, she could always just paint– it was the food part that was occasionally difficult. Luckily Rapunzel was the cook in the house, so she could usually find or make something interesting to eat.

Sure enough, there was a note on the counter in her mother's handwriting. _Be back around ten- girls and I are going out to dinner. Went to the store today, so there's fresh vegetables. Love you most. –Mom_

Rapunzel smiled at the last line. It was their little ritual- her mother would say, "I love you," Rapunzel would respond with "I love you more," and her mother would finish with "I love you most." It was a modified version of one they used to do with her father, but naturally, after he left, a change had been in order. A lot of changes had been in order, actually, but Rapunzel and her mother had ended up fine. Her mother had to work two jobs to help pay for Rapunzel's college education, but they managed just fine, and they were happy just the two of them.

As her eyes roamed around the kitchen, they fell on the mail pile, where on top there was an envelope addressed to her. She frowned when she saw the return address, but opened it anyways.

Well, she had to give it to him– he at least sent nice cards. That is, when he sent them at all. No matter what, her father never seemed to get her birthday right. But at least the card wasn't three weeks late like last year.

She shook the card, and, as she expected, a few twenty-dollar bills fell into her hand. While she was glad to get a present at all, she wished– as she did every year– that her present was a little more personal than money. You gave someone money when you either didn't know what to get them or hadn't bothered to get them a real present, and she suspected that both were true of her father.

A little trilling sound to her left caught her attention, and she smiled when she spotted her pet chameleon, Pascal, sitting on the counter. She held out her hand and he climbed up her arm, settling on her shoulder and shifting colors to match the shade of her shirt.

"Well, at least he sends me something," she said to the chameleon, though there wasn't much happiness in her voice. "When he remembers to."

Pascal snuggled close to her cheek as a way of comforting her. She smiled, though her eyes stayed sad.

She reached a hand into her pocket and pulled out a well-worn flyer. It advertised the annual Light Festival her town held, a day of merriment that culminated in the release of hundreds of floating lanterns into the April sky. Ever since she had been a young girl, Rapunzel had been dying to go. There was only one problem: the lanterns were released at eight o'clock, and Rapunzel's very strict curfew was seven-thirty. If she wasn't home by then, she'd be grounded for a week at the very least.

She sighed. How was she supposed to convince her mother to let her go? She looked down at Pascal, who gave her a supportive nuzzle.

"This is the year, Pascal," she said. "It's got to be. I'm turning eighteen– she just _has_ to let me go. I'll talk to her as soon as she gets home."

* * *

The next morning, Gothel Harriman opened her daughter's door to find the young blonde collapsed on the bed, not even having bothered with changing into pajamas. The little chameleon that Rapunzel loved so much was curled up by her nose, his skin the same color as the bedspread.

With her thick, dark curls, it was clear that Rapunzel had gotten her beautiful blonde hair from her father- probably one of the only good things he'd ever given the girl, Gothel thought with no small amount of venom. Where the brown in her hair had come from, Gothel didn't know, but she had a feeling from one of Rapunzel's grandparents. But Gothel was glad that her daughter had grown up to be such a strong, confident, beautiful young lady– just like her mother.

Gothel padded over to the side and gently brushed her daughter's shoulder with her hand. "Rapunzel," she called softly. The girl jerked awake, her eyes flying open and her body bolting upright. "What?" she exclaimed groggily.

"Breakfast is ready, dear," she said. "I didn't mean to startle you."

Rapunzel looked at her mother with a little bit of trepidation. There was a very good reason why Rapunzel did most of the cooking in the house, so on the somewhat rare occasion that Gothel did cook a meal, the success of the attempt was…debatable. Seeing the look of apprehension on her daughter's face, Gothel smiled. "Don't worry, I didn't burn anything this time."

To Rapunzel's relief, her mother had stuck to something simple. As they ate– Rapunzel giving Pascal a few bites every now and then– she mulled over how she would bring up the topic of the Light Festival. To her relief, it was instead her mother who brought up the subject.

"So I wanted to know what you wanted to do for your birthday, flower," Gothel asked. Rapunzel smiled a little at the nickname– fitting, as she was named after a flower.

"Well, Mom, I was actually going to talk to you about it," she said. "I was wondering…" She sighed and started over, the words coming out wrong. "See, what I really want for this birthday…actually, what I've wanted for quite a few birthdays…"

"Rapunzel, we've talked about the mumbling," Gothel said exasperatedly, "it's very annoying. Speak up."

"I want to see the floating lights!" Rapunzel burst out, before she lost her nerve.

Gothel looked at her with an eyebrow raised, confused. "What?" she asked.

Rapunzel pulled out the flyer. "Well, I was hoping you might take me to see the Light Festival," she said, showing her mother the paper.

Gothel gave it a cursory glance. "Sure, dear, we can go to the festival."

_Here's the hard part_, Rapunzel thought with an inward cringe. "Well, see the thing is, Mom, the part of the festival I really, _really_ want to see is the lanterns. But they're released at eight."

Gothel set down her fork. "Rapunzel, your curfew is seven-thirty. You know that."

"I know, Mom, but this is really important to me! I'm turning eighteen, and I've wanted this for so many years! Can't we just extend my curfew by an hour or so?"

"Rapunzel, I don't want you out and about after dark. All kinds of things could happen- you could be hit by a car, or get sick, or some ruffian or thug could attack you!"

"Oh, come on, Mom–"

"No, Rapunzel. That's final."

"I'll be eighteen. I can do what I want!"

"Fine, then move out. But as long as you live in my house, young lady, you live under my rules, and if you're not home by seven-thirty, then so help me, I will ground you for a month!"

Rapunzel's lip quivered with hurt and anger. "You're not fair!" she yelled, and stormed off to her room.

Gothel sighed and her head fell into her hand. "Great," she muttered. "Now _I'm_ the bad guy."

* * *

Rapunzel flung the door to her room open and promptly collapsed on her bed and began to cry. It just wasn't fair! Most of her friend's curfews had been extended to ten-thirty by the time they were sixteen or seventeen, and she was eighteen with a seven-thirty curfew.

She gave a watery sigh and turned her head to Pascal, who turned blue and snuggled against her chin. She looked over at the phone. She could call Alison, but she didn't really feel like talking on the phone, and if she walked over to Alison's house, she'd have to deal with her six younger siblings, which she _really_ didn't feel like doing.

She reached over to her book, where she'd tucked a little slip of paper inside of the cover. She looked at the two lines written there. She could just pick up the phone, but again, she didn't want to talk on the phone. Then the light bulb hit her.

She ran over to one of her three bookcases, where there was a thick phone book squeezed in between her drawing books and her dictionary. She sat down with it on her bed and flipped it open, hoping she could find his number.

It took quite a few minutes of searching, but she came across it and scribbled down the address on the back of the paper that had his number. Thank God for listed phone numbers.

* * *

The neighborhood that Flynn lived in was what some would call a "student slum," which, coupled with what she guessed his age was, told her he was probably a college student. She stared down at her sandals, avoiding the glances of the other people on the sidewalk. She clearly looked too young to be here- most of the people she passed were at least two or three years older than her.

She thankfully came to the address that she'd written down and tentatively knocked on the door. She waited for a minute and was about to turn back, disappointed, when she heard the lock click and the door opened. A man with wildly curly hair, glasses and a wrinkly T-shirt stood there, looking at her with surprise.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"Um, I– I wanted to see Flynn," she mumbled, tucking a stray hair behind her ear nervously. Unlike her mother, he seemed to be able tell exactly what she said.

He appraised her for a second before nodding. "Hold on a minute," he told her, and yelled over his shoulder, "Oy! Fitzherbert! Door!"

She heard footsteps before Flynn's head appeared over the other man's shoulder with a surprised expression. "Rapunzel?" he asked.

"Hi, Flynn," she said quietly. "Can I talk to you?"

"Yeah, sure," he said. The other man stepped out of her way as she shyly came inside. Once inside, she could see more of the house– well, apartment, really. The entryway opened onto a large room which she took to be the living room; to her left, a small hallway with a few rooms jutted off. In the living room, a pretty woman sitting on the couch looked at her, then Flynn with a raised eyebrow.

"Teresa, John, out," he told them. "Go find somewhere else to play house."

"Hey, we never kick _you_ out when we have company," John protested, but a warning look from Flynn silenced him. Flynn could plainly see that Rapunzel was upset, and that having his two roommates acting like lovebirds nearby wouldn't help.

Once the other two had exited the room, Flynn sat Rapunzel down on the couch. "So what's up?" he asked. "I'll admit, I was pretty surprised to see you at the door."

"Well, I had your number, but I didn't really want to talk to anybody on the phone, and if I went to Alison's house, I'd get bothered by her siblings, and then I thought of you, and I looked up your number in the phone book and got the address, and…" She sighed. "Sorry. I ramble when I'm upset."

"It's fine," he told her. "But what's got you upset?"

"Well, it's kind of a long story," she said. "You know the Light Festival next week?"

"Yeah. I haven't gone yet, though."

"Well, I've wanted to go see the lanterns ever since I was little, but the problem is that the lanterns get sent up at eight, and my curfew's seven-thirty."

He looked at her with a little shock. "Your curfew's that early?"

"I know. I asked my mother, but she won't budge."

"What about your dad?"

Rapunzel looked away. "He's…not in the picture." They were awkwardly silent for a moment until Rapunzel sighed. "Anyways, the point is that my eighteenth birthday is going to be a complete drag and life isn't fair." She buried her head in her hands, and for a second, he was afraid she was going to cry– and he did _not_ do well with crying women– but she stayed thankfully dry.

Flynn was a little surprised at how young she was. But then again, she looked a lot older when her hair was pulled back. When it was down, like this, she looked more her age. _But pretty either way…_ he thought, then almost slapped himself for thinking it. Now was not the time for those kinds of thoughts, and besides, she'd already turned him down. But she was talking again, and he quickly snapped himself out of his terrible thoughts.

"So," she said, letting out a deep breath and brushing her hair out of her face. "Flynn Fitzherbert."

He laughed a little. "Actually, my real name is Eugene."

She raised an eyebrow. "Eugene? Really? Then where'd Flynn come from?"

"Ah. Well, when I was little, there was this book that I read all the time. _The Tales of Flynnigan Rider_. It was full of these stories about this swashbuckling rogue who traveled around, fighting off villains and rescuing damsels in distress. To a seven-year-old kid, it was the coolest thing I'd ever read. I picked up the nickname Flynn in elementary school, and it just stuck. Besides, it sounds more dashing than Eugene."

She laughed, and somehow the sound made his heart skip a beat. "Well, just for the record…I think I like the sound of Eugene better."

He smiled. "Thanks."

She sighed again. "Well, I guess I'll work something out. I'll probably go over to Alison's house or something."

"Alison?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah. Alison is my best friend. If we're lucky, her mom will ship off all of Alison's siblings for the night and it'll just be the two of us."

A thought was forming in his head. "Have I seen her with you before, at the diner?"

"Probably, it's our favorite place. She's a redhead. But a lot of times she's got band after school, so she can't come with me all of the time."

"Hmm," he said absently. He saw Rapunzel glance at her watch.

"Oh, darn, I should probably go before my mother gets worried," she said. "I didn't really tell her that I left, so she'll probably be calling me before too long–" Just as she said this, her pocket buzzed. She pulled out a battered purple cell phone and flipped it open.

"Hi? …Yeah, Mom…Yes, I know…No, I'm fine…Yes, I'll be home soon." Rapunzel paused for whatever speech her mother was giving. "I'm sorry I worried you, I was just…talking to a friend. …Alright, Mom…I love you more." She smiled at whatever her mother said next, then flipped the phone closed with a little sigh.

"Thanks for letting me vent, Eugene," she said as she got up. "You don't mind if I call you that? I like it better than Flynn."

"It's fine," he assured her. He wasn't about to tell her that she was probably the only one he'd allow to call him that.

"Okay," she said with a smile. "Well, thanks again. I'll see you around." She walked over to the door and quietly let herself out.

Once she had left, Teresa poked her head around the corner, looking first at the door that Rapunzel had just walked through, then at Flynn.

"Oh, you've got it bad for her, don't you?" she asked, not in the way that Addie teased him, but as an honest question.

Flynn sighed. "I honestly don't know, Teresa," he told her.

"I like her. You're not her usual self around her."

He looked at her. "And that's a good thing?"

"Well, considering that you're usually infuriatingly suave and overconfident around girls, yes, that _is_ a good thing. Your ego could do with a little deflating, and she's just the thumbtack you're looking for."

Flynn propped his feet up on the coffee table next to the couch, thinking. If what he wanted to do could work, then he'd have to find a way to get off of work early on Monday or Tuesday…

* * *

Eugene was standing outside of the high school on Tuesday, feeling more and more awkward as time passed. More than a few people had given him strange looks, as if they could tell he didn't belong here. Of course, they were right– he'd graduated from high school almost four years ago with no intention of ever going back, and for all they knew, he was some pervert trying to hook up with a girl young enough to be jailbait. But, for reasons somewhat unknown even to himself, he was determined to make this plan work.

To his relief, the doors to the music building opened as the band kids filed out. He searched the crowd for the person he was looking for, and thankfully found her head of bright orange hair standing out like a painfully bright neon beacon. He made his way over to her, ignoring the looks he got from the other band members.

"Alison?" he asked when he came to her. She looked at him with an expression that said "If you come one step closer, I will beat you so bad your ancestors' ears will ring."

"Yeah, and you are?" she said, not unduly hostilely.

"My name's Flynn. I'm a…friend of Rapunzel's."

The hostility in her gaze mostly vanished almost immediately as she seemed to recognize him, or at least his name. "Oh, so _you're_ the guy. I can see why she talks about you."

"She talks about me?" he asked, both flattered and strangely nervous. He hoped it wasn't anything bad.

"Yup. Don't worry, it's mostly good stuff. So what's up?"

"Well, there was something I wanted to talk to you about," he said. "It's about Rapunzel's birthday."

She gave him an approving look. "Walk and talk with me," she told him. "I walk home anyways."

* * *

**The plot thickens...as Eugene and Alison plot together. Irony. Funny bastard, that.**

**So...I hope I'm not getting really OOC here, because I really hate that. And I would never stop banging my head against the wall if I had an OOC fic. D:**

**Again, thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I love y'all and I encourage you to do so again! Strongly encourage! Really strongly encourage! And in case you didn't get the hint, I'D REALLY LOVE IT IF YOU REVIEWED. I am so adamant because people usually...don't. At least on my other stories.**

**Oh, by the way, once we get into Part Four, the story will get SLIGHTLY less kid-friendly. Innuendo is as far as I go in this story, though. I am firmly against Rapunzel/Eugene smut. That couple is just too cute and wonderful to do that. But I thought I'd just warn you. PLEASE DON'T LET THAT SCARE YOU OFF. I do mean _slightly_.**

**So, to sum it up, review or DIE. JK! JK! I KID! I KID! But reviews make me very happy. :D**

**Cheers,**

**~RAH**

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**EDIT: So right now Part Four is kicking my butt very, _very_ hard. Unfortunately, it's what I call a building chapter- it establishes very important details for the rest of the story- so I can't avoid writing it. :( Basically, I'm just notifying you that it'll probably take me a while to write it, so after I post Part Three (this chapter here is Part Two), you may not see an update for a little while, especially because we are moving into AP, SAT, ACT, and STAR testing season in the next few months, so my life will be degraded to a living, slaving hell. But don't give up on me, please! I will finish the story, I promise.**

**Cheers,**

**~RAH**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here it is, folks, the much-anticipated lantern scene. Well...not so sure on the "much-anticipated" bit. But I digress. Part Three, coming right up!**

**Oh, and I promise, I intended to post this on Wenesday, but homework kept getting in the way. D:**

**By the way, I apologize that this installment is so long without any breaks in the middle, but it basically is one long scene. So read on, but I hope you either read fast or have time, cause there isn't a good stopping point anywhere in this part. Sorry! Now enjoy.**

* * *

Rapunzel moved slowly as she packed up her stuff for her sleepover at Alison's. Thankfully her mother had consented rather quickly to letting her stay the night at her friend's house– maybe she'd noticed how upset Rapunzel had been after their fight.

Sometimes she annoyed herself with her internal sarcasm.

Still, although it wasn't necessarily number one on Rapunzel's want-to-do list, she was sure that she and Alison, as always, would find some way to have fun. Alison's mom had been nice enough to clear out all of Alison's brothers and sisters, so there wouldn't be anyone under the age of twelve at the two-person party. Besides, her mother had promised her dinner wherever she wanted to go tomorrow night, and it had been so long since she and her mother had gotten a chance to have some mother-daughter time. She was determined to make the best of this birthday.

She held out her hand to Pascal, who scampered up her arm. "Come on, Pascal," she said. "Let's go to Alison's." Pascal brushed her cheek with his tail sympathetically, and Rapunzel knew she was lucky to have a friend like Pascal.

The drive over to Alison's was quiet, somewhat uncomfortably so. It was obvious that Rapunzel would rather be at the Light Festival, and it was just as obvious that Gothel was not going to move one inch on the issue. Fortunately, Alison didn't live that far from Rapunzel. Once they reached Alison's rather big house– it had to be, to support seven children, two parents, and one grandmother– Rapunzel got out silently.

"Have fun, dear," Gothel said. "I love you."

"I love you more, Mom," Rapunzel said, forcing a smile onto her face.

"I love you most. I'll pick you up around ten tomorrow."

Rapunzel waved a little as her mother drove off, then turned and walked up the front walkway to Alison's front door. She didn't even get a chance to knock before Alison threw the door open.

"Oh, good, you're here!" Alison exclaimed, her short, curled red hair somewhat frizzing out of its bob cut, and Rapunzel was slightly confused at the relief in her friend's voice. "Come on in." She practically yanked Rapunzel's arm off as she pulled her inside.

"Ali, you're acting weird," Rapunzel said. "What is up with you?"

"Oh, nothing. Here, sit down, I need to braid your hair. Hi, Pascal," she said as the chameleon leapt onto her shoulder, gave her a nuzzle, and scampered back onto Rapunzel's shoulder.

"Why?"

"It's a surprise. Sit down." Faced with the full force of her best friend's determination, Rapunzel meekly sat down on the footstool Alison had pointed at.

Alison returned shortly with a brush, a few hair ties, and several hairclips. With these in hand, she set herself to the massive job of braiding Rapunzel's vast amount of hair.

Almost as soon as Alison was done, she ran back to her room and came back with an envelope that had Rapunzel's name written on the front in fancy, curly-cue letters.

"Don't open it yet," Alison insisted. Rapunzel was beginning to get really curious as to why her friend was acting so weird, but since Alison seemed to be waiting for something– or someone– Rapunzel decided to humor her. In the meantime, she was admiring Alison's handiwork. The girl had managed to get Rapunzel's six or seven feet of hair into a four-and-a-half-foot braid that was truly lovely. It had little tiny braids running throughout it, and flowery clips were interspersed all over. But she still had no idea what the heck was going on with her friend's strange behavior.

When the doorbell rang at five o'clock, Alison practically sighed with relief as she strode over to the door and opened it. "I thought you'd never get here," she said to whoever it was.

Rapunzel was shocked when she heard Eugene's voice answer. "I got a little held up," he said as he stepped inside. Rapunzel looked from Alison to Eugene and back. "Would someone care to explain what's going on?" she asked.

"What else?" Alison said. "We're giving you the birthday present you really want. Flynn here will take you to the Light Festival and I'll cover for you until you get back."

Rapunzel looked at the both of them in shock. "But your mom…"

"Is fine with the idea. You know her. She wants you to have a good birthday. If your mom calls, we'll make some excuse for you until you get back after the festival. You'll probably be done by nine, at least. Don't worry about it, hon. Just go."

Rapunzel launched herself at her friend, hugging her fiercely. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Ali!" she exclaimed.

"Hey, thank him. It was all his idea."

Rapunzel smiled widely at Eugene, and that alone made the entire thing worth it, at least for him. "Thank you," she said.

Pascal pattered down Rapunzel's arm, and she held her hand out so that Pascal could properly appraise Eugene. He looked the surprised man up and down, then pointed his tail at Rapunzel and whipped his gaze back to Eugene, clearly conveying his message. That taken care of, he scampered up Eugene's arm to perch on his shoulder and promptly stuck his tongue in Eugene's ear.

"Gyah!" he yelled as Alison and Rapunzel cackled and giggled, respectively.

"He likes you," Rapunzel snickered, unable to contain her laughter.

"He has a funny way of showing it," he said, rubbing his ear as he gingerly placed Pascal back on Rapunzel's shoulder, where the chameleon sat, looking rather pleased with himself.

"Oh," Alison remembered. "You can open the envelope."

Rapunzel did to find three twenties inside. That, coupled with the two her father had sent her, gave her plenty of walking-around money. She looked up at Alison, almost on the verge of tears.

"It's from me and my family," she said. "Just so you can have cash in case there's some crappy souvenir you just _have_ to have."

Rapunzel threw her arms around her friend again, overwhelmed.

"Alright, now get out of here," Alison told her, pushing her towards the door. "You don't want to miss anything, do you?"

"No! Let's go!" Rapunzel grabbed Eugene's wrist and pulled him out. Alison waved after them before closing the front door.

Eugene, taking the lead, led her over to a little beat-up sedan. Rapunzel raised an eyebrow at it.

"Hey, it's my friend Max's," he said defensively. "And he can barely afford this car. Cut a poor college student a break. Besides, it runs better than you might guess. Comes from him being a mechanical engineer."

Rapunzel laughed as she got in the passenger seat. The festival was held by the lake, so it was about a ten minute drive. This, too, was quiet, but definitely not as uncomfortably so as the drive to Alison's house.

When they got to the lake, which was already mostly packed, Rapunzel was so excited she was almost bouncing. This was the day she had been waiting for her whole life, and it was almost here! Eugene couldn't help but smile at her exuberance as he paid for their entrance. Almost as soon as they were in, Rapunzel was darting around here and there, unable to make up her mind as to where to go.

"Is there anything in particular you want to see?" he asked her.

"No– I don't know! Everything is so exciting! I want to do it all at once!" she exclaimed excitedly.

"Well, if you do that, you'll run out of things to do later. How about we get something to eat first?"

"Sure!" They set off towards where there seemed to be a lot of food stands. The nice thing was that the food section was a little like a farmer's market– you could get fruit, vegetables, bread, even fresh milk. There was a pastry cart that Eugene practically had to drag Rapunzel away from– "But I wanted to know how to make that cake!" she protested– although he got them each a warm chocolate chip cookie. Once they had their food, they sat down on a bench to eat, but Rapunzel plowed through her food so fast Eugene wasn't sure how she didn't have a stomachache. When he was finished eating, she pulled him over to a glass stand, where she marveled over the delicate sculptures and tiny necklace charms. After buying a little hummingbird necklace, she then hauled him over to a book stand, another food cart, a cloth stand, and an art booth with seemingly boundless energy.

While she was busy pouring over the paints at the art booth, he bought a little flag from a wandering vendor. It was purple, with a seven-pointed sun stitched onto it. It was the official flag of the town, but had become basically a symbol of the festival. Once Rapunzel had purchased a few paints and brushes, she came happily trotting over. "Whatcha got there?" she asked.

"It's for you," he told her. Trading the flag for her purchases, he watched as she enthusiastically examined the flag, comparing it to the banners strung across the fair.

"Thank you!" she said, tucking it into her bag. "Now I'll always be able to remember this day."

They wandered around the festival, and Rapunzel was content to simply look around at everything. It was all so wonderful that she wasn't sure how she could take it all in.

As they were walking down the wide dirt path that served as the main highway of the festival, they passed a small band of musicians who were playing a tune that almost begged to be danced to. And, sure enough, a pair of children got up and began dancing gleefully– well, more spinning, but it was the spirit of the matter that counted. As others began to join them, Rapunzel looked up at Eugene with shining eyes. "Let's dance!" she said excitedly.

"Oh, no, I don't dance," he protested, but she ignored his objection, slipping off her sandals and setting down their things on a bench, leaving Pascal as a guard, before pulling Eugene out into the growing group of dancers.

He had to admit, it was fun– more fun than he'd had in a while. It didn't seem to matter that he, while a very agile person, was not suited for dancing, as she did most of it anyways. The partners in the dance kept shifting, and before he knew it, he was spinning around a tall brunette and Rapunzel was on the other side of the group. As she linked hands with one of the children and pranced in a circle, he couldn't help but smile.

Rapunzel, meanwhile, was having the time of her life. She avoided school dances as much as possible– there, what passed for "dancing" was bordering on sex with clothes on, and it never failed to sicken her. But this…this was _real_ dancing. Somehow she'd ended up with a crowd of people in between her and Eugene, and she kept losing sight of him. As she passed from hand to hand, she saw him heading towards her as well. They both moved to meet each other, but were each intercepted by someone else and pulled away. Rapunzel went with it, enjoying herself too much to be bothered. She was swept up in the dance, and even though she had no idea what the dance was, her feet somehow moved in time to the steps.

She was twirling around, bare feet tapping and pivoting on the ground, when the song came to its end and she suddenly found herself right next to Eugene, his hand on her waist, hers on his shoulder, and their other hands together. Surprised, she took a second to catch her breath before noticing that she was _right next_ to Eugene, so close their noses were only inches apart. She blushed and stepped away a little, though not without a wide, silly grin on her face.

Shouts rang out, and people looked up from what they were doing to see what they were about. The message rippled quickly through the fair, and people began to move closer to the lake.

"What's happening?" Rapunzel asked Eugene as they collected their things and she placed Pascal on her shoulder while slipping on her shoes.

"It's starting to get dark," he replied. "The lanterns will be released pretty soon."

She gave a quiet, involuntary gasp. This was it– the moment she'd been waiting for almost her entire life. It was almost here.

"Where should we go for the best view?" she asked. She looked around wildly for a place to sit.

"Don't worry about it," he told her. "I've got it covered. Just follow me."

Even in April, the evenings still came fast and early. As they threaded through the crowd, it was already well into sunset by the time they reached a small dock. A few people were stepping onto boats, and Eugene led Rapunzel over to one.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"Well, you've been waiting for this day your whole life, right? I figured you should have a good seat."

Her eyes widened in surprise, then her whole face lit up with joy as she delicately stepped in a small boat, setting down her bag at the front. Pascal scurried off of her shoulder onto the prow of the boat as Eugene pushed them away from the dock and paddled to the center of the lake.

Rapunzel was awed by the beautiful sunset reflected in the water. As ripples turned the lake from glass to waves, the fading day stained the water oranges, pinks, and purples. She knew she'd have to paint this as soon as she got back to Alison's house. At that moment, she felt no shame in breaking her mother's rules– this day, this moment, was entirely worth it.

Eugene was thinking the same thought. Judging by how much fun she'd had that day, he gathered that this would probably be one of Rapunzel's more memorable birthdays, and for the life of him, he couldn't see why her mother wouldn't let her experience this.

As if she was reading his mind, Rapunzel answered the unspoken thought. "My mother means well," she said. "She does what she does to protect me, because she loves me. She just doesn't want to see me hurt, like she was."

"What do you mean?"

"My dad left when I was seven," she told him, looking away and brushing her hair behind her ear. "Everything was fine, then bam– one day he just up and left. That kind of thing leaves a mark on your perception of people."

"So that's why you don't want to be seeing anyone?" he asked, wondering why he was prying so much.

"Uh, not totally. I got screwed over by both of the only boyfriends I've ever had. One dumped me and the other cheated on me and _then_ dumped me. So I'm a little leery of relationships right now."

"Oh," he said, not really sure what to say after that. At least it wasn't him, though.

Rapunzel blew out a long breath. "Anyways, this is kind of a bit of a downer, topic-wise. And there's something I wanted to ask you."

"Shoot."

"Why me?" she asked bluntly. He looked at her with equal parts surprise and confusion. "What?"

"Why choose me?" she pressed. "I'm sure there are lots of older, prettier, more sophisticated girls at college. So why pick a klutzy high school kid who spends most of her time with her nose buried in a sketchpad and her hands covered in paint and graphite?"

"I…" His voice trailed off. He was completely caught off-guard– he had definitely _not_ been ready for this question.

He was luckily saved from answering– at least temporarily– by a hush falling over the festival. He and Rapunzel both looked up at the sudden lack of chatter in the background to see the first lantern begin to fly up into the sky. As if on cue– which, if you thought about it, they were– tens more lit up on boats like theirs, on the docks, on the shore of the lake– everywhere they looked, it was suddenly awash with the light of the paper lanterns.

Rapunzel gasped and scrambled for the bow of the boat, nearly pitching it over– and Eugene with it– in her haste. She watched with eyes bigger than dinner plates the first lantern wobble and bounce in the slight breeze that blew through, and as she watched, hundreds more rose into the sky.

She sighed happily. She had waited for years and years and _years_ for this day, and it was everything she had imagined– no, better, much better. She almost choked up, she was so happy, and it was so beautiful. Every year she'd watched the lanterns from her window– or Alison's– but it didn't even come close to comparing with seeing it in person. Even though it was a warmer-than-normal April, her skin rippled and tingled as she got goose bumps, and a shiver ran down her spine. Today was definitely the best day of her life. And it was all thanks to him.

As her thoughts flashed to Eugene, she felt something else behind her, something… warm? Her brow wrinkled a little as she turned around to investigate.

Her mouth dropped into a little O and her eyes widened even further as she saw what the warm thing was. As if by magic, Eugene had somehow conjured up two lanterns for them. He couldn't possibly know that _this_ was what she had wanted to do ever since she first saw the lanterns, could he? It didn't matter to her. All that mattered was that her day was now complete.

She took one of the lanterns in her hand. On it she could see the faint imprint of the seven-pointed star of the festival, but she was surprised, despite for herself, by the warmth. Of course, that was to be expected, but somehow it still took her by surprise. She held it carefully, almost afraid to break it, or something. The awe of the whole day was still sinking in, and she was finding it difficult to believe it could all be happening.

"Are you okay?" she heard Eugene ask her, and she looked up at him. There was a look of pure wonder in her eyes that somehow managed to make his stomach fill with butterflies, an admittedly somewhat unfamiliar feeling for him– few girls, if any, that he'd ever been involved with had ever done to him what Rapunzel so effortlessly could do without even trying, or even realizing.

"Yeah," she said softly, her eyes returning to gaze at the lantern in her hands.

"I've dreamed about this for years," she admitted. "Every year I'd go sit by my window and watch these lanterns float into the sky, wondering how I might feel if I were actually here, getting to release a lantern of my own. Now that I'm here, and now that I get to do it…I don't know. It's a little…overwhelming."

"But in a good way?" he asked.

"Definitely in a good way," she confirmed, and he was relieved that she was enjoying herself. He smiled at her reflexively, admiring her wonderfully simple way of seeing things. She beamed widely back at him, allowing her expression to convey what words could not. Without a word from either, they lifted their lanterns into the sky, watching as they gently twirled around and joined the much larger crowd of floating lights.

Eugene looked at Rapunzel to find her still staring up at the sky, watching the lanterns bob and glide with a beatific smile. The light of the lanterns was reflected in her golden hair, elegantly braided by Alison, and her shining green eyes, making both even more beautiful. Instinctively he reached out and took her hand in his.

She looked at their intertwined hands, a little shocked. Her eyes flicked from their hands to Eugene's face, but, to his relief, she didn't pull away.

"I know you don't want a relationship right now," he said. "But that doesn't change the way I feel. I like you, Rapunzel. A lot. And I guess I'm hoping that maybe you'll give me a chance."

She smiled a little. "Yesterday I might have still said no," she admitted. "But today has been the best day of my life, and it's all because you made it happen. So I think I'll change my answer." She scooted a little closer to him on the boat, and he took his hand from hers to place his arm around her shoulder as they watched the lights together, close together like the lanterns they'd just released.

* * *

**I also apologize for the bad dialogue at the end there. I'm better at writing descriptive segments than segments with lots of dialogue. It always ends up choppy and kind of awkward.**

**Again, I'm sorry, but there will be a very big break between now and when I post Part Four. (At least I didn't leave you on a huge cliffy.) I had to scrap my original plan for something better, but while my lame plot problem has been taken care of, I'm now faced with the dilemma of how to actually resolve the plot. Part Four will probably end up being kind of short. Part Five may be too. I may end up combining the two. Who knows? Not me, that's for sure, which is the scary part. ^^;**

**Anyways, you guys know how much I love those reviews. So send 'em in! I do read them! Really! I love me some reviews! Hint hint! :)**

**Cheers,**

**~RAH**


	4. Chapter 4

**I LIVE!**

**God, I did hate this part. I hate plot chapters with every fiber of my being, because they are annoying to write yet necessary for the story. GRR. D**

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**Well, hopefully Part Five will go faster, assuming I can find the time this coming week. Last week was completely out of the window, and I got next to no work done on anything! It was uncool. But here you go:**

* * *

Rapunzel was asleep on top of her library book. Again.

Honestly, Alison didn't know why this surprised her. The girl worked herself to the bone every day– it was no wonder she was always so exhausted. At least she didn't drool on the pages, or the librarians would probably throw them out.

With a little sigh, somewhat reluctant to wake the young woman– who, in almost everything she did, including sleeping, still managed to look cute– Alison nonetheless nudged her friend's shoulder. Rapunzel jolted awake, her eyes flying open as she shot upright. It was almost impossible for her to wake up normally, but at least she was fairly quiet about it, or the librarians would _definitely_ throw them out.

"You fell asleep on your book again," Alison whispered.

Rapunzel sighed, running a slight hand through her hair. A few months ago, she'd decided that she was finally tired of her albeit beautiful six-foot-long hair and had had Alison cut almost all of it off, shearing it just below chin-level. As well, in the two years since her eighteenth birthday, her hair had gotten a few shades darker, and the brown lowlights– accents before– had grown more predominant. All in all, Alison mused, the look was a good one. As well, it had had the effect of aging Rapunzel about a good three years. Long-haired and blonde, she had looked like a teenager, no older than sixteen or seventeen (there were a few times– amusing to Alison, annoying to Rapunzel– that she'd been mistaken for a high school student); now, she looked like a young woman.

"So, you doing anything tonight?" Alison asked.

"You mean besides studying?" Rapunzel answered sardonically. Alison grinned somewhat sheepishly.

"Well, Eugene and I are supposed to be hanging out, though that's not really a guarantee," Rapunzel continued, and Alison didn't fail to notice the slightly bitter note in her friend's voice.

"Has he been gone a lot lately?"

"Yes," Rapunzel sighed. "And to be honest, it's starting to annoy me."

"Guys are annoying," Alison said wisely. "It's in their nature. The good ones make up for it, though, and I'd be willing to call Eugene one of the good ones."

Rapunzel nodded, though the smile she gave was small. She was lucky to have such a supportive friend, she mused. It was a strong contrast to her mother, who, upon Rapunzel telling her about Eugene, had promptly assured her daughter that men were all "good-for-nothings who will leave you as soon as you look at them cross-eyed," and that as long as Rapunzel lived under _her_ roof, she wouldn't be dating anyone else anymore. So Rapunzel had moved out that very day, taking refuge at Alison's house. She had felt horrible about freeloading off of the Carraways, but Alison's mother, who could be very formidable when she wanted to be, had insisted on her staying there for the rest of the school year and the summer.

And despite her mother's promises, Rapunzel and Eugene had been happily dating for almost two years with no end in sight. They were perfectly happy together, something that Rapunzel couldn't help pointing out in her infrequent calls to her mother. It was spiteful, she knew, and childish, but on this point, she couldn't help but want to try to prove her mother wrong. Not when her mother seemed so determined to spoil one of the best things that had ever happened to Rapunzel. But despite her convictions, she couldn't help but wonder, on the times when Eugene had had to cancel a date, just how wrong or right her mother might be.

Rapunzel was suddenly aware that Alison had been talking to her. The redhead waved her hand in front of Rapunzel's face, waking her friend from her reverie. "Rapunzel, have you heard a word I just said?" she asked exasperatedly.

"Yes. You were…well, no, I didn't," Rapunzel admitted sheepishly. "Sorry, I was just thinking."

"I _said_ that if you were so fussed about it, just talk to him. He's a good guy, Rapunzel. He'll listen."

That was high praise coming from Alison, who had previously regarded any and every guy who had ever tried anything funny with either of the two of them with the same amount of disdain she normally reserved for particularly gross bugs. After seeing her friend's heart get broken badly two times already, Alison was loath to repeat the process. But Eugene was different. No other guy would have gone to such lengths on a first date to make a girl feel so special and happy. He had certainly gone above and beyond the call of duty.

"Yeah," Rapunzel agreed softly, absently brushing her short brown hair out of her face. She didn't know why she was working herself up about it. Alison was right– Eugene was a good guy. No, he was better than good, he was wonderful, and Rapunzel couldn't ask for more. Besides, she was sure there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of his absences. This was a trivial issue, not worth getting worked up over.

But that thought didn't help the knot slowly twisting itself in her stomach.

* * *

Rapunzel tiredly turned the key in the lock to the door of Eugene's apartment. It was ridiculous how exhausted she was. As she stepped over the threshold and dropped her bag and jacket in the small living room, she looked around for Pascal, who, due to the rules in the college dorms, couldn't live with Rapunzel and therefore was Eugene's only permanent roommate. Rapunzel wasn't really sure how well the arrangement would work out at first, since Pascal's tongue seemed to have an unusually strong attraction to Eugene's ear, but the two seemed to have come to a grudging truce– at the very least, Eugene didn't complain about the "frog" as much as he used to.

Once she'd searched every room– and there weren't that many– with no success, Rapunzel cast her gaze into the kitchen with a little smirk growing across her face. When she couldn't find Pascal, it was almost a guarantee that he was probably in the kitchen. Her eyes roamed from appliance to appliance, looking for a telltale little movement that would give the chameleon's position away…

There. By the cookie jar– no big surprise there. Rapunzel bounded over and pounced on the chameleon, who let out a rasping squeak of dismay as he vainly tried to escape.

"Gotcha!" she cried triumphantly, gathering the little green reptile in her hands. He sulkily sat down, grumpy at conceding defeat once again.

"That's me 24, you zero," she recited, grinning victoriously. "You're going to have to step up your game, Pascal." She placed him on her shoulder as she exited the room, heading instead for the bedroom, where she'd left the book she'd been reading.

* * *

It was only a few hours later when Eugene opened the door to his apartment, but it was already getting dark outside. Unfortunately, nature didn't seem to have gotten the memo that winter was over, since sunset was still no later than six o'clock. It was one of the things Eugene didn't like about that time period between October and March– the sun set so early.

He dropped his bag on the couch, next to Rapunzel's, he noted, which told him that his girlfriend was home. Out of habit he kept look out for her frog– _chameleon_, he reminded himself– as it seemed to like to greet him in…well, a less than pleasant way. But he knew that she wasn't allowed to have pets in the dorms, and she certainly couldn't leave him at her mother's house (not after she'd left so spectacularly), and it would have broken her heart to give him up, and she'd asked so nicely…well, not even he could stand up against those big green eyes, not when she looked at him like _that_.

He poked his head inside the one bedroom to find Rapunzel asleep, curled up a little on the covers with a book held loosely in her hand. The fr– chameleon was nestled inside her cupped other hand.

He smiled at the sight, reminded of why, exactly, he loved this girl. Despite her stubbornness and occasional temper, she was an endearingly cute and sweet person who almost never failed to make people like her, most of the time without even realizing it. Teresa had taken an immediate liking to her, so much so that she had offered Rapunzel her and John's spot in the apartment when they moved out after their wedding. Rapunzel's embarrassment at the thought of living with a guy had been very entertaining.

He was about to wake her up, but decided against it. She'd been working so hard lately that most of the time, she was half-asleep on her feet. Besides, he wanted to surprise her. Using his natural ability in stealth, he quietly closed the door most of the way and turned back to the kitchen, satisfied that the frog wouldn't bother him.

* * *

It was the smell that woke Rapunzel. There was a very good reason why she cooked for Eugene and herself, and it was the same as the reason why she had cooked for her and her mother. Which is why she was surprised when she could smell something more than vaguely delicious being crafted in the kitchen.

Running a hand through her hair – it never got tangled anymore, one of the advantages of short hair, she mused – she yawned and plodded over to the kitchen, where, to her surprise, she found Eugene cooking. To her further astonishment, Pascal was sitting on the counter nearby, and was conspicuously _not_ bugging him.

"So, did I get dropped into a parallel universe while I was asleep, or what?" she quipped. "Because you're cooking, and it actually smells good."

He looked over his shoulder at her. "Hey, a guy can learn," he protested. "And for your information, it's _very_ good."

She smirked. "We'll see about that." Walking over, her bare feet faintly tapping against the linoleum floor, she leaned against the counter. "So, remind me why you're cooking?"

"I thought I'd surprise you."

"Oh, I'm surprised, all right. Now let's just hope that your food tastes as good as you say it does."

Rapunzel found, to her further surprise, that it actually wasn't that bad. He was no Julia Child, but she wasn't running out of the room, ready to hurl, which– having tasted his earliest attempts at cooking– was a marked improvement.

"So, is there any other reason behind this unexpectedly good dinner besides wanting to surprise me?" Rapunzel asked. "Usually when someone does this, it's because they want to sweeten the other up before dropping some kind of bombshell."

"No reason, I thought I'd do something nice for you. Consider it me trying to make up for last Saturday."

Rapunzel looked down at her food to hide the small scowl that had flashed across her face, but he still noticed it. "Hey, I'm really sorry about that, Rapunzel," he said. "There was no way to avoid it."

"No, it's fine, Eugene," she said with a little sigh. "It's just…the whole skipping out on dates deal is starting to get a little old."

"Rapunzel, I'm sorry," he repeated, a note of mixed pleading and exasperation in his voice. "I'm not trying to leave you hanging, these things just sort of…come up."

"Can't you just cancel _them_ instead, once in a while?" she asked, beginning to get frustrated. He started to say something, but stopped.

"I see. Well, far from me to get in the way of your busy social life," she shot pointedly. "I won't bring it up again." She got up, her food still half-eaten, stalked over to the couch to grab her bag and jacket, and then tramped over to the door.

"What are you doing?" he asked, getting up as well.

"Going back to the dorms," she answered angrily as she shoved on her shoes. "There's nothing left to discuss." With that, she almost ripped the door open and left, shutting it with a bang.

Eugene sighed and fell back into his chair, running his fingers through his hair. He noticed the frog sitting next to his plate, staring at him balefully.

"Well, what are you looking at?" he snapped.

In answer, Pascal leapt up onto his shoulder and, before he could do anything about it, shot his tongue into Eugene's ear, then scampered back to the table as he yelled in shock. Ruefully rubbing his ear, Eugene glared at the chameleon, who gave him a beady-eyed glare in return, then growled a little and scurried off.

* * *

Alison looked up in surprise as the door to her dorm room opened and a seething-mad Rapunzel stomped in.

"Do I want to know?" she asked simply.

"No," Rapunzel said, her voice laced with venom, having fumed the whole bus ride back to the college.

Alison pursed her lips, but let the issue be. She knew Rapunzel well enough to know that when she got angry like this, it was probably more dangerous to try to talk to her than to just leave her alone, so she turned back to her work, but not without a stab of worry for the stability of Rapunzel and Eugene's relationship.

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**So there you go, folks! I hope I'm not getting to OOC in this story. Part Five is the last bit, and it's going to be rather short. I'm considering tacking on an epilogue-y part as well, but nothing concrete.**

**I am in love with _The Keltiad_. It's a series of science-fiction/fantasy books by Patricia Kennealy-Morrison (they're published under Patricia Kennealy), the wife of the late Jim Morrison of The Doors. (Although they were only married in a hand-fasting ceremony, so the legality of the marriage is questionable. But I digress.) Basically, she's taken Celtic mythology and stuck it into a fantastic sci-fi/fantasy setting, so that's my three great literary loves right there. Right now, I'm reading _The Hawk's Gray Feather_, which is the first in the _Tales of Arthur_ trilogy, which is based off of the Arthurian legends (i.e. King Arthur, Camelot, et al). You all should read these books! They are very good! The first in the series is _The Copper Crown_ (though chronilogically, _Tales of Arthur_ comes before _Copper Crown_, which is part of the _Tales of Aeron_ trilogy).**

**Not much to say this time. Except: REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW. Reviews = love.**

**Happy Valentine's Day, everybody!**

**Cheers,**

**~RAH**


	5. Chapter 5

**So I wrote this on the drive down to my grandmother's house in Ojai. Never would have thought a seven hour drive could be so productive. :)**

**Thanks to you all for being patient with me. I. Hate. Homework. With a fiery, burning passion. But I love you all. So, here it is:**

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"Fine!"

Alison winced as she heard her friend yell, and opened the door to their room, only half-wanting to go in. This was the third time this week that she'd walked in on some point in Rapunzel and Eugene's now frequent arguments, and to be honest, she was starting to avoid the room as much as possible, if only to escape the strife she thought she'd left behind with her siblings at home.

She poked her head in to see Rapunzel toss her phone onto the chair by her desk and then curl up on her bed with an angry huff.

"Hey," Alison said softly, hoping not to spark her best friend's temper any further. Rapunzel sat up with a glare that could wilt flowers, but upon seeing who it was, tried to rearrange her expression into a smile; it only ended up looking like a pained, forced one.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Alison asked, her usual question after Rapunzel fought with Eugene.

The parody of a smile slid off of Rapunzel's face like ice cream melting in July. "No," she said, scowling darkly and falling back onto her bed. "Talking about it doesn't change anything, and it certainly doesn't make me feel better."

"Okay," Alison said, mentally counting down from five. Right on cue, Rapunzel surfaced again with another sigh, this one sad as well as frustrated and angry.

"He's just so impossible!" she whined. "Every time I try to reason with him, he just gets more infuriating and then starts saying that it's _my_ fault. I'm not the one who kept cancelling our dates!"

"You are the one who walked out on his apology dinner," Alison reminded her as she starting working on her term paper. She looked up to find Rapunzel giving her a glare that, if looks could kill, would certainly have assured Alison a slow and painful death.

"Oh, don't give me that look, 'Punzel," Alison said scathingly. "You know I'm right. Until one or the other of you admits that you're both wrong, all you're going to do is fight."

Rapunzel sighed and fell back onto her bed, and Alison could tell that the conversation wasn't going to go any further. Wordlessly, she gathered together her things.

"Where are you going?" Rapunzel asked.

"To the library. I'll see you after dinner." With that, she left not three minutes after she had come in.

Rapunzel winced as the door closed. She didn't like chasing away her friend, and she knew that Alison was starting to get tired of her and Eugene's constant fighting. But every time she tried to get Eugene to just _talk_ about it, he'd get all offended and annoying, and they'd just go back to square one.

To be frankly honest, Rapunzel knew that Alison was right. She and Eugene were both in the wrong here. She just didn't want to admit it to herself, and she had a feeling that Eugene didn't want to either.

She heard the ringtone of her phone go off from her chair, and with a grumble, she crawled over and gathered it. _Probably Eugene_, she thought sourly, and without looking at the caller ID, flipped it open. "Yes?" she answered curtly.

_"Rapunzel, dear, it's your mother."_

"Hey, Mom," she said in a notably lighter tone of voice, taking an odd mix of comfort and annoyance at her mother's call. "What's up?"

_"I just called to see how you were doing. But you sounded upset, flower, what's wrong?"_

Rapunzel sighed. She really didn't want to tell her mother, because she knew where the conversation would head, but her child's instinct to take shelter with her mother won her over.

"It's…well, it's Eugene. We're…we've been fighting."

Rapunzel could hear Gothel sigh sympathetically. _"Dear, I'm so sorry. That's never easy."_

She was surprised. Normally her mother wasn't this supportive. "I don't know what to do. We can barely say five words to each other without it turning into an argument. I just want to talk things out and get it over with."

_"Men can be so impossible. I remember going through this with all of my high school boyfriends."_

Rapunzel gave a little laugh that turned into a sob as tears suddenly ran down her cheeks. Gothel gave another sympathetic sigh. _"I'm so sorry for you, dear,"_ she repeated. _"I tried to warn you."_

There_ it is_, Rapunzel thought. "Mom, I really don't want to hear it," she said, her voice watery.

_"Yes, dear. I'm sure it'll work out."_

Rapunzel didn't think she sounded very sure, but she let it go, simply because this was the first non-caustic conversation she'd had with her mother in almost a year. "I have to go, Mom," she said.

_"Alright. I love you very much, dear."_

"I love you more."

_"I love you most."_

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Alison came back to the dorm room to find Rapunzel moping. With a frustrated sigh, she threw her books down on her bed. "Alright, that's it," she declared. Rapunzel sat up and looked at her, surprised.

"What's what?" she asked, a little confused.

"I am done with you sitting around, waiting for _him_ to call so that you can try to work things out, but end up getting into an argument anyways. I am done with you sitting around, feeling sorry for yourself but not doing anything about it. And I am done with the two of you constantly fighting! Either you work things out, or you break up, and if you keep dragging this out any further, I swear to Buddha, I will move out and find someone else to live with."

Rapunzel recoiled a little, shocked. Alison could see that she had won, and promptly marched over and grabbed her friend's wrist.

"You are going to go over to his place _right now_," Alison said forcefully, dragging Rapunzel over to the door and pushing her into the hallway, quickly closing and locking the door behind her.

Rapunzel realized she'd been locked out, and pounded on the door. "And I am not letting you back in until you're done," Alison called through the door, "and when you come back, you'd better be either happy or bawling your eyes out."

Rapunzel sighed. "Can I at least have my coat?"

There was silence for a minute, then the door opened a little and a coat came flying out of the tiny opening. She sighed again, but slipped it on and made her way to the stairs.

* * *

Rapunzel steeled herself before knocking on the apartment door. On the bus ride over, she'd agonized over how she'd start the conversation, trying in her head to sound both firm, but not forceful, and willing to compromise. Mainly she just ended up sounding silly.

She heard the faint sound of footsteps, then the slide of the bolt, and the door opened to find a surprised, slightly frumpy-looking Eugene. Immediately his expression slipped into a guarded one, unsure as to why she was here.

"Um…hi," she said lamely.

"Hi," he answered, his tone of voice noncommittal.

"Well, can I come in?" she asked, and winced inwardly at how impatient her voice sounded.

She could see him think over it for a second, but he nodded tightly and stepped back to let her in. She stepped inside, and once he closed the door again, they stood there awkwardly, her in her sweatpants, T-shirt, jacket, and sandals, he in his more-than-a-little worn jeans and sweater.

"So…Alison told me to come over here and talk to you or she'd move out," Rapunzel said, trying for a joke, but it was obvious that he didn't take it the same way.

"Ah. Well, far from me to bother Alison," he returned sullenly.

"Hey, she's affected by this as much as we are," Rapunzel shot back. "And besides, she's right. It's not like we've gotten anywhere on the phone."

"Fine. Let's talk," he said, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Oh, don't be like that."

"Like what? Annoyed? Frustrated? I think I have a right to be."

"_You_? What about _me_?" Rapunzel said, starting to get angry.

"_I_ was trying to make it up to you. _I_ was trying to apologize. You took my apology and threw it in my face without even the courtesy of a 'sorry.'"

"_I_ was the one who had to spend all of those evenings alone, because I'd set it aside for us! _I_ was the one who had to sit around feeling resentful, who had to have that disappointment when _you_ would call and cancel. Did you honestly think that you could just say 'Oh, honey, I'm sorry' and it would all be fine? That a _dinner_ was going to patch things up?"

"I thought it was a good place to start," he retorted hotly, "but I didn't really get a chance to go any further than that."

"Oh, don't pretend that this is all _my_ fault!" she yelled. "You didn't even really give me a real apology!"

"Fine! _I'm sorry!_ Is that a 'real' apology?" he said, now yelling as well.

"Too little, too late!" she replied furiously. "The first time you canceled, I figured it was just a scheduling mix-up. Then after it kept happening more and more, I thought that maybe you were avoiding me, that you didn't want to be with me anymore!"

He looked at her blankly for a moment, caught off-guard. He certainly hadn't expected her to say _that_. "You thought…ah, jeez, Rapunzel…" He ran his hand through his hair, turning around as he did so.

With a painful shock, suddenly Rapunzel was thrown back to a twelve-years-past memory of her father walking out the door, her mother sobbing and begging him to stay. Unable to help herself, her eyes welled up with tears, which quickly spilled over as she spun around, yanked open the door, and ran out with a sob.

She vaguely registered Eugene calling after her, but she didn't want to face him, afraid she'd lose complete control over her emotions, and instead continued pelting down the stairs to the ground floor. Once there, she ran over to the bus stop, where she collapsed on the bench, sobbing her heart out.

She heard footsteps behind her, and knew it was Eugene. She turned away and held up a hand, as if to stop him. "Wait," she said. "Just…just give me a second."

Instead, he took her hand and circled around to kneel in front of her. She looked up, her face still half-covered with her right hand. He was looking at her hand, small in comparison to his.

"Do you remember going to the Light Festival for the first time?" he asked.

She sniffed. "Of course I do."

"And you remember going out on the lake in that boat?"

"Yes, of course."

"When we were sitting there, and I was watching you get so excited over all of those lanterns, I knew right then that you were the one I wanted to be with. And I knew that I would do whatever it took to be with you." He looked up now to face her. "I still hold by that, Rapunzel. I'll do whatever it takes to make things work. I love you."

She gave a small, watery smile. "All this time I've been afraid of losing you. Every experience I've had with a man told me that they all break your heart. I should have known better, at least with you. I love you, too."

He smiled and kissed her lightly, then pulled her to her feet and wrapped her in a hug. She held him just as tightly, happier than she'd been in weeks.

As if on cue, the bus pulled up, ruining the moment perfectly. Rapunzel pulled away, scrubbing her eyes dry. Eugene reached over and brushed away a few straggler tears.

"I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" she asked, turning to board the bus.

He smiled. "Definitely."

She returned the smile and got on the bus, paying the driver the toll. She sat down and found, to her surprise, that she was still crying.

An older man was sitting across the aisle from her. Seeing her tears, he leaned over a little. "Are you alright, miss?" he asked, concerned.

She nodded. "Yes." She smiled a little. "Yes, I am."

And she was.

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**So, since it was actually mentioned in one of the reviews (thanks, helikesitheymikey!), and I was going to do it anyways, I will now address the plot hole of what Eugene was doing when he kept canceling on Rapunzel. Well...I don't really know. I never really intended to go into that. I just needed something to get them fighting. Which sounds horrible, but hey, that's why I hate plot chapters.**

**Well, there we go! I hope you all like this chapter. I'm debating on writing an epilogue, and I probably will, so keep watch for an update on this story.**

**Thanks so much to you all for reading this story! It really makes my day to see reviews. This is my most reviewed story so far. I'm glad you all like it!**

**Y'all know what you have to do now, right? Review, review, review! Reviews are love!**

**~RAH**

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EDIT: Eff me, I just realized that I used the wrong name for Rapunzel's mother. Originally she was named Laurel, but I went ahead and changed it to Gothel, which I obviously forgot in this chapter. Hopefully that didn't confuse you all that much. ^^;


	6. Chapter 6

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**Well, here it is, folks: The End. I hope you like the tidbit I gave you guys. :)**

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Rapunzel huffed as she lifted a particularly heavy box. Luckily, it was one of the last ones. Of course, there was still the process of actually unpacking them, which was what she really dreaded. But Alison would be there to help them, so it wouldn't be too bad.

She walked– well, waddled– over across the threshold before setting down the box with a thud. She wiped a few beads of sweat (it was a particularly hot summer that year) off of her forehead and squeaked in pain when something sharp dragged across her forehead. She looked down at her hand at the ring that still took her by surprise. Eugene had only proposed a week ago, so the engagement ring– and the concept of being engaged– was something she was still getting used to.

"Honey, stop admiring your bling and help me with this monster," Alison's voice said from behind a rather large box. Rapunzel sheepishly hurried over and assisted her friend; between the two of them, they managed to get the box into the empty living room without injury or damage.

Just as Rapunzel was about to say something, they heard a grunt near the door. "Coming through!" Eugene said as he carried a large, rather unwieldy box in and set it down next to theirs.

"Well, that's the last of it," he said with a note of proud finality.

"Yeah, now we just have to unpack everything," Rapunzel lamented.

"I don't envy you that task, but I just signed up to help you move everything, not unpack. On that note, then, I will leave the two of you to it." She gave Rapunzel a hug, Pascal a nuzzle, and Eugene a punch to the arm, then left. "I'd better be the first person you two invite to the housewarming party!" she called over her shoulder.

Rapunzel waved. "We'll have to make sure to invite John and Teresa too, since they did help us pack everything up."

"Your mom too?" he asked, a little apprehensively.

"Yeah, Mom too," Rapunzel agreed. "Besides, she's finally started to come around to you. I mean, we had dinner with her and she didn't say anything mean."

"True." He wrapped his arms around her shoulders; smiling, she leaned her head back against his chest and hung her hands on his arms.

"Isn't it weird to think we'll be living together?" she asked him.

He considered it for a moment. "Not really," he answered. "I mean, I've had roommates before, and besides, it's not like we haven't basically been living together for the past four years. This is just more official." He kissed the top of her head. "And I decided a long time ago that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you."

She smiled and twisted around in his hold so that she could face him, and therefore kiss him more easily. When they broke apart, she slid her arms around him and hugged him. "I love you," she said, her voice a little muffled by his shirt.

He smiled. "I love you too."

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_You are the best thing that's ever been mine_

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D'aw! Aren't they cute? Sorry if the ending seemed kind of sudden, it was the best I could come up with.

I'm so thankful that you all have been patient with my hectic schedule and have stuck with this story until the end! I rather like it, I'm glad you all like it too. Your glowing reviews have been little lights at the end of my supremely dark tunnel of schoolwork, to put it metaphorically. In other words, I love y'all. :D

Last time to say this: REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! I love me some reviews!

Disclaimer:  
Rapunzel, Eugene Fitzherbert, Pascal, Gothel, floating lights, Snuggly Duckling, etc. (c) Disney.  
Alison Carraway, etc. (c) Moi.

Thanks, loves!

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~Rebel-Angel-Hero


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